How do you feel about residing in Rochester? How would you rate the overall quality of life in the City? Do you feel safe in your community? Are you satisfied with the transportation of the City and available services?

​It’s likely that your household has some opinions on life here in Rochester, NY, and with the upcoming National Citizen Survey you will be given the opportunity to share these opinions. More importantly, your opinions, in the form of survey responses, will ultimately influence the future delivery of services in your community.For the first time ever, the City of Rochester is conducting a statistically valid citizen survey through the National Citizen Survey (NCS). The NCS is conducted by the National Research Center (NRC), of Boulder, CO, which conducts the survey for more than 350 jurisdictions annually. It is the most widely used and trusted survey tool of its type. The survey will be sent to 2,000 randomly, yet specifically, selected households throughout all of Rochester’s various neighborhoods. Although the selected survey recipients are random and anonymous, they have been chosen through a system that ensures the diverse needs of Rochesterians are represented throughout the collected results. The selected households and their responses are completely unknown by the City and remain anonymous in the data reports. The purpose of the NCS varies per city, however, in Rochester the intention is that the collected data and citizen responses will allow the City to assess needs of citizens, measure service performance, and evaluate potential policies and initiatives intended to serve the community. The survey has already been mailed, and results will be collected throughout November. By the end of the year, the City will analyze the data and it will be used to support planning, budgeting, departmental operations and public engagement. In addition to the selected households that will receive a physical survey for the study, all other Rochester residents will have the opportunity to share their opinions through a public, online survey.​As we know, the residents and neighborhoods of Rochester are diverse across all demographics. Completed surveys will provide data that represents the different experiences and customer satisfaction that someone may have while living in Rochester. The results will be broken down by City quadrant to best understand the different experiences by geographic area as well as, demographic characteristics such as age, race, income, employment, household size, etc. This is invaluable information which the City can use to better understand the perception of services in areas such as mobility, safety, economic development, quality of natural environments, recreation, education and enrichment, and general government. Results will also allow for comparisons to other cities across the United States. Ultimately, the anticipated success of Rochester’s first National Citizen Survey in 2018 will ensure that this type of data collection continues in following years, so that the City can better track changes over time, and more effectively improve the quality of life for its resident.